WORCESTER Athletic Club's senior men's track and field team produced another fine display in Midland League Division Three at Burton.

The city took second place on the day and moved just two points behind leaders Notts AC and one ahead of third-placed Corby.

With the top two teams promoted to Division Two, the team now travel to Mansfield on August 6 with high hopes of another strong performance and promotion.

They needed a good result at Burton following a disappointing sixth-placed finish in round two and team captain Andy Poppleton got the competition off to a perfect start.

Poppleton, who had competed in the national under 23 competition in Bedford earlier in the day, comfortably took the 400 metre hurdles race in one minute 0.1seconds.

Minutes later, Richard Everest equalled his lifetime best performance to win the 'B' string pole vault competition with 2.70m.

Club stalwart Glyn Chidlow produced his best vaulting performance for more than three years to take third position in the 'A' string competition with a jump of 3.15m.

While the vaulting competition was going on, Chidlow also competed in the long jump where he produced another season's best performance of 6.54m to win a close contest by 8cm.

In the 'B' string event, 15-year-old Sam Rushall produced a fine leap of 5.76m to secure second place.

The club's jumpers kept up the pressure when 15-year-old Edwin Elmhirst, another of the clubs up-and-coming athletes, managed 1.65m to take a well-deserved 4th place in the 'A' high jump.

On the track, 17-year-old Sam Mitchell slashed his 800m lifetime best by a staggering 23 seconds to win the 'B' string race in a fine 2-02.

Mitchell then followed it up with another personal best of 4-13.3 in the 1,500m to take second place in the 'A' string race.

In the 'A' 800m, Richard White ran an excellent race to finish fourth in 2-03.

New team member Mike Clarke ran his fastest races of the year to win valuable points for the team in the 100 and 200m with times of 12.2 and 25.1.

Mike Simmonds showed his class with a blistering run in the 'A' string 200m, finishing in 23.5.

With the club's runners and jumpers piling on the points, the heavyweights of the team began their assault. Team manager Jim Cowell took a close competition in the 'A' string javelin with a throw of 51.53m.

Cowell followed this victory with 11.14m and third place in the 'A' string shot putt. He added a massive 2.5m personal best of 32.45m for third place in the hammer.

Nick Daniel, meanwhile, threw a season's best 31.93m to take second place in the discus to follow his fifth place finish in the hammer competition.

Once again, Worcester's officials were the envy of the league and did their part to secure valuable bonus points for the team.

The club provided the starter, marksman and field referee on top of its mandatory allocation of officials.

With the 4 x 400m relay to go, they were second with a slender lead over Bromsgrove & Redditch and Corby.

Following an excellent start from White, Mitchell and Poppleton, the batten was handed over to 16-year-old Simmonds who ran a blistering 50.5 last leg to take second place, just two tenths of a second behind the leaders.

Anyone interested in joining the club can call Cowell on 07739-385162 or e-mail worcesterac@yahoo.co.uk